Dry egg composition



Patented'Ang,--.

OFFICE DRY EGG coMrosrnoN Edward K. Chopin, Chicago, Ill.

No Drawing. Application March 21, 1947, Serial No. 736,417

This invention relates to the production and preservation of egg solidsin dry form.

It also relates to the production of a novel powdered compositioncontaining egg and milk solids and edible fat, the product being ofenhanced utility and keeping quality suitable for use in baking,preparation of baking mixes and other food products, and wherein the eggcomponent is maintained and preserved for protracted periods of storagein a manner whereby it substantially retains the characteristicproperties of fresh eggs upon reconstruction with moisture in thepreparation of food products.

I am aware that it is known to dehydrate and powder eggs and to use themalone or as an admixed component in prepared mixes and other foodpreparations. However, it is also known and recognized by those skilledin the art that previous standard, commercially dried eggs are not verystorage stable but rather are rapidly subject to development ofunpleasant flavors and odors and impairment of natural egg functions,and other deterioration on storage. Other investigators in this fieldhave recognized the deficiencies of standard, commercially dried eggsand their variability from a functional standpoint, particularly withrespect to their effect on baking qualities in cakes or other baked,

fried or cooked products. The consensus of opinion is that thesedeficiencies and differences observed in dry egg powders are connectedwith the solubility of the nitrogen-containing constituents of the eggin aqueous potassium chloride solution or water. For example, Ary andJorden in volume 10 of Food Research," 1945,

. in an article entitled Cakes and custards from spray dried whole eggpowder state that Egg powders having greater solubility produced plainbutter cakes of better volume and better eating quality than egg powdershaving a. lower solubilit These authorsstate that there are two sourcesof the insolubility causing poor quality and they are processing and,storage.

In general, there are at least three problems "connected with theproduction and use of dried whole eggs, dry yolks and. dry whitesfor-prepared foods and baking mixes and baker products, these being:injury to the egg solids during drying; impairment of functions of eggsduring storage, when either in the form of dry eggs or in+ corporated asa separately prepared component in prepared food mixes; andincompleteness of reconstitution upon the addition of water whichresults in a significant reduction of the emulsifying, volume-producingand edibility-improving properties of the egg solids present.

It is an object of the present invention to prepare and preserve eggs ortheir components to prevent the alteration of egg properties due tooxidation, denaturation or decomposition of the 2 Claims. (Cl. 99-210)egg constituents,.-whereby the fresh egg characteristics necessary tosecure high quality of prepared food mixes in dry form are maintainedover long storage periods.

The present invention provides protection of the egg solids from proteincontent insolubilization or other deleterious. changes due to heator'suriace denaturation during the process drying period so that thesolubility of the watersoluble proteinis maintained through the dryingstep and upon subsequent storage and use of the dried product; providespreservation or prolongation of the baking functions of egg solids formany months after ished product provides a substantially completereconstituting material so that the emulsifying, volume-producing andedibility-improving properties of the egg solids remain active and arelargely realized in the finished food-products, such as doughnuts,cakes. muflins, waliles, rolls, biscuits, etc.

The objects of the present invention are, in general, accomplished byblending together edible fat, liquid egg 'material and liquid milkmaterial at temperatures to prevent in ury to the egg solids, followedby emulsification and spray drying. This produces a comminuted orpowdered product of a creamy, yellow, soft character which may be useddirectly in the preparation of baked products or for preparation of foodmixes. The powder may supply all or a part of the fat, egg and milkrequirements of the formulas in which it is used.

In the preparation of my composite product, I may employ either fresh orfrozen whole liquid eggs, whole yolk or white, or mixtures th'e'reof.Likewise, I may employ ither whole or skimmed liquid milk is normal orconcentrated form, powdered milk. in reconstituted form and .the likeaqueous milk solids medium. The edible fat component may be either anoil or a solid and of either vegetable or animal origin, and ispreferably at least partially hydrogenated for enhancement of keepingquality or storage stability.

In carrying out my process, the liquid egg, milk and fat components arerapidly added together and thoroughly mixed under warm conditions,preferably at a temperature not in excess of 135 F. after the eggs areadded to facilitate intimate mixing but to prevent injury to the eggsolids and, particularly, that injury due to coagulation of the proteinsthereof. It the fat employed is a solid, it is pre-heated to melt itprior to admixture. This mixing step provides what maybe termedpre-emulsification," and although emulsification agents may be added, Ido not find them .essential either in this pre-emulsification step or inthe subsequent emulsification step due to the fact that the eggcomponent -,naturally drying; and in the finper cent skim milk solids,andto enioisim-istnensanieet uo som I, The added fat serves to-preservethe egg .20 a bydnsulating-thedelicateeggssolidsfmm -.in'duc'tionorali-durlngth; ht eni fl mms- "Q- tion and subsequent dehydrationand'also-tends; H

to act as a buiier to prevent'coagulation of the a such 'vnie i g recontains about 82% by weight of massages-atom.

. nemesis a; le er cent eggyclk solid -1o per t -swim p g centskim milksolids; an tQmnke 500' or powd'er the following in.-

*--water. I V g -.-"It be-iinuei'stood tnau am not-confined"tothe'foregoingispecific niateriaisopperoentages, and that. I. may useany combination as herein previously generally described; Howeven-aswill above examples, each 'of the mixtures contains a maiorgproportionby weightegg solids when the flash heat of the drying step 25 Water-v Itis p rre o have- 8.1 suilicisnt is evaporating the moisture from theemulsion. amount of fat t P vide from at least about The m; solids, inaddition t acting as an 25 per cent to about 75 per cent thereof'byweight sorptive and holding medium, serves to prevent 0f the solids inthe POWdered' Product t '18 8180 denaturization of thewater-soluble eggproteins Pr ferred to have an amount of aqueo i and to retain thesolubility of these proteins not medium to provide o t eas a 0ut'1 peronly during the product drying ste but als cent to about 60 per cent ofmilk solids in the final upon reconstitution thereof by addition ofmois- P h 8: component m y Provi e from 1 ture in the utilization oi mynovel composite in D to 60 per nt Of the total solids. t d ti of foodproducts, These aqueous solutions were then passed The followingexamples are illustrative of comthrough an homogenizer which caused anintiposltions or formulations employed in preparing mate 911111151011result They w h P d my 'novel eggsmflk-{at powder; to a spray-dryingmachine and the moisture evap-' orated to produce a powder.

EXAMPLE 1 The .following examples and tables are illus- To make 500pounds of egg-milk-fat powder 40 trative of the use of my novelegg-milk-fat powder composed oi 48 per cent hydrogenated vegetable andthe comparative benefits thereof: soy oil, 26 per cent egg yolk solids,2 per cent EXAMPLE 4 albumen solids, and 24 per cent skim milk solids,the following ingredients were placed in a wa A p p cake mix was d pcontaining 1 t d thoroughly d; flour, sugar, leavening, salt, and 18 percent of p d the egg-milk-fat powder of Example 1. Water Hydrogenated soyoil 240 was added o the dry mix and the mass stirred to Egg yolk 289 foa Cake batter which was then placed in 9;, E albumin so cake-tin andbaked in a normal way. The cak Normal liquid skim milk 1,410 50 g g i egra n. asks t lfxtureflgoolcll vollltiie, an ov agreea y n emou w en ean. This contains about by weight of A comparison between the qualityscores of cakes water made from a standard dried egg. the e -milk-EXAMPLE 2 fat powder, and fresh eggs, on an equivalent Another powderwas made composed oi 25 per 55 solids basis, is given in Table I asfollows:

' Tum: I

se rage; masses 5 with M Days After Dry g) Days Alter Drying) ggs Volumeso 21 (:00 M1. or mo 29 (332 Ml. o: 29(335 Ml. er 100 Grains of ke).Grams oi eke). Grams at like). Grain 20 19 (Slightly Coarse)... 20 20Soitness m 19 20 2o Tenderness 20 19 i!) 20 Crumb Color. 5 4 (SlightlyDull)... 5 (Bright) 5 Symmetry 5 5 5 l 5 I 100 as I 09 99 cent lard. 16per cent whole egg solids, and 59 EXAMPLE 5 make 1500 rou o! powder thefollowing ingredie'n Lard ' Whole eggsSkimmilkoontainingldperoentsoiids-.. 1,850 "mix containing the creasedonly slightly, the dry mix containing the standard dried egg powderdeteriorated quite significantly. This difference is given in Table IIas follows:

Even after six months, the grain, texture and eating quality changedonly slightly, while the cake made from the mix containing the standard,commercially dried e g, had deteriorated to the extent that it wasconsidered to be of poor eating quality. The main reason for thispreservation of baking qualities in the prepared mix containing theegg-milk-fat powder over the extended storage period was the conditionof the egg solids in the mix, due to the preservation of those eggsolids by the process described herein. Further, the completereconstitution of the egg solids, when used in the form of theegg-milk-Iat powder, was at least partly responsible for the goodquality cakes made from both the freshlymade dry mix and the stored drymix.

I claim as my invention:

1. The method oi preparing powdered e88 materials and for preservingthem in a storage stable condition and for substantially retaining thenormal fresh character and function of the eg upon reconstitution withwater in the preparation of food products which comprises preparing amixture of liquid egg material, aqueous milk solids medium and ediblefat in liquid condition by intimately mixing them while warming at atemperature not in excess of about 135 F. and in proportions to form afinal powdered product containing from about 25% to about 75% by weightof fat, from about 15% to about 60% by weight of milk solids and fromabout 1% to about 60% by weight of egg component, said mixture contain-'ing a major proportion by weight of water whereby the mixture isatomizable, forming said mixture into an oil-in-water emulsion bymechanical emulsification thereof under pressure, and spray drying saidemulsion to rapidly evaporate the moisture content thereof and to reduceit to a finely divided composite particle condition.

2. The process of claim 1 further characterized in that said eggmaterial comprises egg yolk.

. EDWARD K. CHAPIN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 162,277 Campbell June 14, 19041,895,694 Tranin et a1 Jan. 31, 1933 1,897,775 Tranin Rb. 14, 19332,237,087 Littleiield et al. Apr. 1, 1941 FOREIGN PATENTS I NumberCountry Date 19,512 Great Britain Aug. 25, 1910

